Sparkie's rundiary

A bit of a wakeup call this morning - although not a real surprise.

Consciously skipped a run yesterday as I had two solid runs in the previous two day and my foot was a bit tender - did a bike ride to Lady Macquarie's Chair and home to compensate.

Arrived almost on time this morning, with a few obviously quick runners I hadn't seen before there. Good warm-up (something I am really relishing training with SWEAT), and then into the main session, which was a set of 5x600m loops with a hard uphill (150m) and a longer downhill, with about 2:30 recovery. This is a good session, as you work hard on the hills, but rather than stopping at the top, you push yourself for another 400m or so.

The first 50m or so was a sharp downhill - not my strong suit, and I found myself working the uphill immediately afterwards to catch the leaders. This worked OK for this first one (2:18) and the second (2:15), where I was only just off the pace. However, whilst I can hide my lack of form in a session like Tuesday's, where speed was more of a virtue, a test of strength like this session found my sorely wanting, and I dropped off the pace in the last three, running 2:20, 2:22 and 2:22 (the last one saved by a desperate sprint to avoid being caught by Vespa).

A good honest session, and looking at the times, not as bad as I thought straight afterwards. But the fact remains that my fitness is nowhere near what it should be, and sessions like this are a far better gauge of my current form then short sessions, where my natural speed can hide these weaknesses. Assuming my feet hold together OK, I will try and run every day, and gradually build my longer run up from 1 to 2 hours. I am away at camp next week, so Sean has scheduled two tempo runs for Tuesday and Thursday.